Live data from Hacker News

Justin Kan’s Exec Starts Running Errands For Companies And Startups Today

techcrunch.com

1–10 of 40 posts

Re: Justin Kan’s Exec Starts Running Errands For Companies And Startups Today

#3
It's a nice perk, but "distracted" by dry cleaning or grocery shopping? What's next, distracted by sleeping or having a life outside work?

I'd take this kind of thing a lot more seriously if it was at least not pitched as a way to spend more time in the office.

Re: Justin Kan’s Exec Starts Running Errands For Companies And Startups Today

#4

It's a nice perk, but "distracted" by dry cleaning or grocery shopping? What's next, distracted by sleeping or having a life outside work? I'd take this kind of thing a lot more seriously if it was at least not pitched as a way to spend more time in the office.

Lots of our customers are using Exec as a way to provide their team members with more leisure time. The way I normally pitch it is that if you want to go grocery shopping to get ingredients for a special meal you are going to cook and you will enjoy, then by all means, go for it. If grocery shopping is a chore that you don't look forward to, then outsource it. You should outsource the things you don't want to do to leave more time for the things you want to do.

Personally, I dislike having errands that require me to physically leave the office disrupt my work day, especially on days where I need solid chunks of time programming. Our goal with Exec for Companies is to help teams spend more time doing what they want to do.

Re: Justin Kan’s Exec Starts Running Errands For Companies And Startups Today

#5
post #4

It's a nice perk, but "distracted" by dry cleaning or grocery shopping? What's next, distracted by sleeping or having a life outside work? I'd take this kind of thing a lot more seriously if it was at least not pitched as a way to spend more time in the office.

Lots of our customers are using Exec as a way to provide their team members with more leisure time. The way I normally pitch it is that if you want to go grocery shopping to get ingredients for a special meal you are going to cook and you will enjoy, then by all means, go for it. If grocery shopping is a chore that you don't look forward to, then outsource it. You should outsource the things you don't want to do to l…

Justin, I love the idea of Exec.

What have been biggest challenge to get it working so far?

Re: Justin Kan’s Exec Starts Running Errands For Companies And Startups Today

#6
I really like the approach of trying to reduce friction as much as possible. The main problem that I have with TaskRabbit, fiverr, etc is that while those services might be able to help me outsource things I don't want to do myself, they create additional, new work for me in making me draft a proposal, vet people, and so forth, which is (partially) self-defeating.

Re: Justin Kan’s Exec Starts Running Errands For Companies And Startups Today

#8

It's a nice perk, but "distracted" by dry cleaning or grocery shopping? What's next, distracted by sleeping or having a life outside work? I'd take this kind of thing a lot more seriously if it was at least not pitched as a way to spend more time in the office.

My take on it is that less time doing fiddly errands = more relaxation time away from work, which results in happier workers who are more productive when they are at work. If I knew that every second of my free time was open to possibility, and that I didn't have to set aside two or three hours a week to do the "grown up" stuff, I would absolutely be a happier and more productive person overall.

Re: Justin Kan’s Exec Starts Running Errands For Companies And Startups Today

#10
Its funny the Y-Combinator mafia (and I mean that lovingly) can really be such a great tool for these personal services companies like ZeroCater and Exec. I doubt they're forced to participate but its such a great source of initial users. I think for some of these companies this may be a bigger Y-combinator benefit then the mentoring/cash or VC intros.
Post reply on HN